MSI displayed its upcoming Z87A Gaming Series motherboard. The company is yet to begin work on cosmetic details such as PCB color, heatsinks, component color scheme, etc., but a bulk of its development is complete. To begin with, the board uses a strong 16-phase VRM to power the CPU, which draws power from two 8-pin EPS connectors. The CPU is wired to four DDR3 DIMM slots, supporting up to 64 GB of dual-channel DDR3 memory; and three PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots in x16/NC/NC or x8/x8/NC or x8/x4/x4 configurations, depending on how they're populated. Four x1 slots make for the rest of its all-PCIe expansion slot area.

Storage connectivity on the Z87A Gaming Series includes eight SATA 6 Gb/s slots, two of which are driven by a third-party controller. 8-channel HD audio, gigabit Ethernet, eight USB 3.0 ports (six on the rear panel, two by header), dual-HDMI and DisplayPort display outputs; effectively make for the rest of the board. The same exact PCB could be used to create two SKUs, the Z87A Gaming Series, and the Z87A-GD65. Apart from a swankier color scheme and heatsink design, the Gaming Series variant could feature a few additional overclocking features.

no likely MSI, bad luck has made me turn away from them and there are plenty of better brands.

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If it was bad luck, why is it MSI's fault?

My last MSI board was an AM2, on top of which I had the king of the hill Athlon X2 6400+ "BE"... which was a load of crap (the BE part, not the CPU itself)... but I guess none of that was MSI fault either, I should have gotten the 5000+ BE if OC was really what I was after. Either way, loved it's features and the Dual GBit LAN on it.

OK so maybe I just should have said they are junk and not put luck in there at all.

I had a z77 board that I RMAed after RMA after bios change after beta bios after this that and the next that wouldn't keep the system stable and worth a damn to me.

its ok though I have learned from my mistakes and I will never by a MSI board again, simple really.

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Not really simple, I'd say it's a bit ignorant to think that way... like the people keeping away from ASRock boards because they happen to hear or experiment with the "older" ASRock and think they're crap. But all in all, I understand your reluctancy or the scenario in general and it's hard to get out of it, like my past bad experiences with nVidia 8800 series (memory leaking and misc driver mishaps).

It would be great fun if they kept the PCB colour, you know, for nostalgia sake. No ports should be colour coded, the more obscure the better. Also, CPU settings like FSB, multiplier etc. should be taken out of the bios, and be relocated to tiny switched next to the cpu socket. Oh! And one often used port should be at a stupid location, like right next to the PCI-E 16x slot, or far away from where the cord can reach.

Like I said it is more of selection.... why buy from a company failed you when there is 5+ other companies to pick from?

I sold it and run a Asus Max. board that was a little more money but totally worth it and has not failed to amaze me.

Ya AsRock as really gotten the a lot of bad reports... why, they are "new", they had issues for a while... but from what I hear there new boards are above the rest or at least equal and they are cheaper ...lot cheaper.

Was just going to say how deliciously retro it looks with that colour scheme from the days when overclocking meant messing with DIP switches and jumpers... but I'm sure the rose tint is masking days of frustration!